Saturday, August 09, 2014

Miracle of a Proper Bike Fit

What's the best $100 I ever spent? The $100 I paid to have a professional bike fitting. No other investment has made such a positive impact on my ability
to ride, without aches, for hours on end. A year and 1000+ miles later I can confirm the benefits.

Life Magazine

Here's what led me to get a fitting in the first place: I'd been riding the same Kona Dew Deluxe hybrid for 5 years.
On paper, the bike was the right size, a 56cm frame for my 5' 10" build, and a seating position that allowed me to sit upright enough to easily see the flow of NYC traffic, but not so upright that the bike was sluggish.

Yet I'd always had difficulty maintaining speed as I rode, and I couldn't crank with gusto for long. On rides greater than 10
miles I'd become generally uncomfortable, to the point where I figured I’d
grown old or was perpetually out of shape. My dream had been to ride the New York Century. I doubted, however, that I'd make 30 miles, let alone 100.
And, strangest of all, I’d run through half a dozen saddles but could never find a seat that fit. The lower edges of my butt would tighten during a ride. The discomfort would persist well after I'd dismounted.

On a trip to a local bike shop, Bicycle
Habitat in Park Slope, Brooklyn, I discussed my saddle woes and riding
discontent. The idea of a fitting was
floated and, although I was skeptical, I agreed to make an appointment and the aforementioned $100 commitment. If I didn’t at least try to get the bike to work for me, I’d
likely end up selling it.

Two weeks later I met with Emily, a Bicycle
Habitat manager, at the shop for the fitting.
By that time I’d reached the end of my patience with the bike, and
walked in with a “do with my bike what you will” attitude, which is an unusual
state of mind given that I'm normally finicky about bike setup. Letting someone else mess with my bike
required a leap of faith. Or of last ditch desperation.

Emily began by removing the
Deluxe’s handlebar stem and bolting on an infinitely adjustable fitting stem in its place. As she did this, I sat to the side on a cushioned
pad that measured the width of my hind quarters. The result of that test was that my tail was normal, and not somehow predisposed to cycling pain.

Emily removed the front wheel,
mounted the bike into a trainer and had me start pedaling. Over the next half hour
we worked through a variety of combinations of seat positioning and handlebar height and reach. She pulled out a string with a weight tied
to the end and used it to check the alignment of knee over pedal at the
front of the pedal stroke, thereby setting my fore/aft placement.

The big surprise: I’d been sitting too far
back on the bike, a position that not only sapped power but also put my knees
at risk. My knees, by the way, had previously gone under the knife for patellar
cartilage wear, the result of long-ago years of BMX racing on bikes with ridiculously
long cranks. On BMX bikes I’d always gotten way over the
back of the bike to kick ass.
As it turned out, that strategy doesn’t translate to full sized adult
bikes, where the knee-to-pedal relationship is to be respected.

1983 GT Pro, prior to cleanup

Emily ultimately switched out the stock
Kona seatpost, which had a rearward offset, for a totally straight post. She installed a 100mm long stem to replace the original 90mm component. Essentially, she shifted my whole body maybe 2/3 inch forward on the bike. I was now properly oriented over the pedals, and rode slightly more bent forward than before.

Cosmetically the changes were unnoticeable.
But I felt as though I were riding a completely different bike with a more
athletic character. The Kona now felt much more like a road bike, with sharper
handling and immediate power to the back wheel. Whereas two laps had been the
most I'd cared to ride around Brooklyn's 3.5 mile Prospect Park loop before the fitting, soon after the fitting I'd worked up to four laps without any pain in my legs or back.
Even better, I got an immediate ~1 mile per hour speed boost without
added effort, and my creaky knees felt great. And I
crushed hills.

Post transformation: Early morning somewhere in the Berkshires, August 2013Why does the morning dew turn the Dew's black forks gray?

In September I entered my first New
York Century. I signed up for the 35
mile route, a little worried that I’d be able to make the distance. On the day of the
ride I decided to go for it and took the 55 mile option. A missed turn and I
found myself on the 75 mile circuit. I finished the ride with no pain or
discomfort. The next morning I got out of bed as if nothing had happened.

Adding to this new found riding joy, I turned my once
bummer bike into a fabulous ride with a $100 cash outlay, plus another $50 in new
stem and seatpost, so much cheaper than a new bike.

1 comment:

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